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in the books shields are powered by batteries. i would imagine the same to hold true for the games and the time in cover represents the chance to replace the battery. couldnt you based on this treat shields similar to guns and have the batteries be similar to how ammo is handled?

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in the books shields are powered by batteries. i would imagine the same to hold true for the games and the time in cover represents the chance to replace the battery. couldnt you based on this treat shields similar to guns and have the batteries be similar to how ammo is handled?

You can, but we're still left with the question of how to represent the damage mitigating aspect. You could certainly make shield batteries an item and require a handle item action to restore shields.

Defensive Matrix is the Aquaman of Mass Effect powers. It could be a tech armor purge trick or you could make it the tech equivalent of Barrier. I don't play the multiplayer (horrible internet here) so I hadn't seen those two Blade powers in action. I wonder if they make more sense as independent powers or if one should be a trick of the other. In any case, using them as independent powers means that all three trees can have seven powers currently, assuming you don't set things up differently than I did.

Tech Armour should be in the Biotic tree (it is a biotic effect), but it can become either a Warp Trick (which it actually is*) or a Barrier Trick (for those who don't read the codex). Defense Matrix becomes the core Tech DR effect. Blade Armour is easy as a Fortification trick (it's notably not biotic, unlike Tech Armour).

Ballistic Blades is a unique combat power. It's basically like having a claymore you can activate as a power, that also inflicts bleed and can be upgraded to a kind of clusterbomb launching claymore (yes, is as cool as it sounds) - there's just nothing else like it.

I'm not sure what you mean by Defence Matrix is the Aquaman of Mass Effect powers. Ignoring sillyness like a singleplayer Sentinel with 80% DR because they layered their powers, it's often straight up better then Tech Armour. The returned shields are almost always more valuable then the small damage that Tech Armour deals upon purging (though it is better in MP because they buffed it substantially, but having shields recharged is still usually better).

* A (slightly more complex) idea for this particular one is make it a Defence Matrix trick requiring Warp. That represents that it's a Warp effect held in place with some Tech use. It also means to aquire it you've built in that the PC has to have both Tech and Biotic powers, rather then a heavy handed "must have Sentinel levels / Origin" restriction. The actual mechanics could change change Defence Matrix to a Biotic Effect (and so benefit from any feats / gear / class abilities that boost biotic effects) and change the purge option to an AoE blast. It would represent the fluff far better (which is always my personal goal when adapting any existing property).

@Blankbeard, For choose from a list abilities, I don't know what else should go in that list. I just think that there should be one, because otherwise that class feels more like a master class with 20 levels than it does a base class. I had been thinking to either call it Shephard (a little tongue in cheek), or Spectre. Maybe we could borrow from the captain and/or courtier to emulate Shep's team leader and powerful allies dynamic.

I find that I don't mind your breakdown of powers, but I still kind of worry it will appear foreign to ME fans at first glance. I also worry that if only some of the powers/paths have tricks you can apply, it breaks up the symmetry of things.

"Tech Armor" is the common term for a complex series of field generators that disrupt incoming force using a stationary warp effect. The theory is that bullets that would normally shatter on impact instead break apart when they strike the field. The field then bleeds away the shrapnel's kinetic energy. The standard design for tech armor traps the warp field between two low-yield kinetic barriers to protect the user from the field itself. When the outer barrier fails, the warp effect is discharged, potentially harming anyone nearby. For this reason, many soldiers modify the armor with a haptic-style light effect to warn allies not to get too close. On missions where stealth is paramount, this effect is disabled. Cynical soldiers joke that the design is called "tech armor" because if it were simply called "warp armor," no one would use it.

@Blankbeard, For choose from a list abilities, I don't know what else should go in that list. I just think that there should be one, because otherwise that class feels more like a master class with 20 levels than it does a base class. I had been thinking to either call it Shephard (a little tongue in cheek), or Spectre. Maybe we could borrow from the captain and/or courtier to emulate Shep's team leader and powerful allies dynamic.

How about Squadmate as a name? Or something similar. As for abilities, let's start with a few generic ones that will fit well.

Sneak Attack: Your attacks inflict 1d6 of sneak attack damage.

Expertise: Choose one of (Class Skills). You may always take 10 with this skill and it takes the standard time. Taking 20 takes 10 times the normal time.

Teflon Reputation: When you or your teammates lose Reputation, the loss is decreased by 2 (min 0).

Power Stunt: You gain two tricks that apply to your powers.

Omnitool expertise: Pick one skill you have ranks in that requires a kit. As long as you have an omnitool, you are considered to have a workshop for that skill.

Most Deadly: When using a favored weapon, you may activate criticals for one less action die.

Blah: When you are a helper in a cooperative check led by a teammate, you automatically succeed.

I find that I don't mind your breakdown of powers, but I still kind of worry it will appear foreign to ME fans at first glance. I also worry that if only some of the powers/paths have tricks you can apply, it breaks up the symmetry of things.

I'd envision other tricks that don't simulate powers but other things in the game or just abilities that seem useful. For ex:

Freefall (Pull trick) Requirements: Asari and Pull power, or Pull Rank 4.You may activate this power as a free action even if it isn't your turn. While this power is active, you fall at 60'/20m per round and take no falling damage. This power lasts 1 minute.

Area Barrier (Barrier Trick) Requirements: Barrier Rank 3.You create a 10'/3m sphere centered on you that inflicts 1d6 biotic damage on enemies. Anyone inside the sphere takes no effect from attacks. At the end of your action, if your barrier has stopped any attacks, you must make a will save DC 15+1 per round the sphere has existed. You may not use your personal barrier or take movement actions except for a 5 foot step while the sphere exists.

N7 (Talent)The Interplanetary Combatives Academy, sometimes called "N-School" or "the villa," recruits officers from every branch of Earth's militaries to partake in grueling courses at Vila Militar in Rio de Janeiro.

I've been working on these off and on since the last time we were talking about it. I wanted them to be more complete before I presented them, but I'm stumped so maybe you guys can help fill in the blanks.

So, this first doc is an overview of the way I envision ME Shields, Barriers, and Armor to work. I've implemented them as conditions. I know it's not exactly the same as the video games. But, it is simple and shouldn't result in characters having insurmountable piles of vitality points. My reasoning for this is already on display a page or two back, so I won't rehash it here.

The second is where I'm stumped. It's the mechanics for the powers. The list of powers comes straight from one that Blankbeard suggested. There may be room to fiddle with it. The biggest problems I'm having are:1. Carnage for Combat Powers. It's basically the same as Concussive Shot, and I think Concussive Shot is the better one to include.2. Some of the Tech Powers. I already did them once, they won't have changed much and I'm just not that interested in duplicating that effort.3. Biotic Powers that affect movement. I just don't know how to represent these mechanically.

And a quick note for something that might not be immediately obvious. A lot of Biotic Powers in the video games make their targets more susceptible to Biotic damage. Of course there's not a Biotic damage type, and rather than invent one, I just used Force. I'm not thrilled about that, but I think it's the best of the existing types.

Biotic Barriers and Shields function the same way in the game, as far as I could see. Overload takes big chunks out of them. Warp puts a big dent in a Barrier, but doesn't effect Shields. Rapid fire weapons burn through both faster than larger slugs. (The M-98 Widow/Black Widow is noted for being able to punch through shields with enough force left to do damage, which sounds like a weapon feature, which the geth Javelin may also possess.)

I like the way shields are not assured to be burned down. Hmm. Could Tough be a better way to mimic Shields and Barriers for Standard NPCs?

Armored enemies in ME3 are simply immune to several powers, and take some extra damage from others. (IIRC they are immune to Concussive Shot, but get chewed on by by Warp.)

In the video games, armor, barriers, and shields basically add hit points. Those extra hit points had particular vulnerabilities, and there were some wonky edge cases where that vulnerability would bleed over (the two I'm aware of both involve running out of armor while taking fire damage), but once the shied/barrier/armor had been defeated no vulnerabilities remained. Really though, the strongest effect that any of them had was to make your targets either immune or strongly resistant to nearly all of your powers. And I think that's the most important aspect of them to get right.

Also, according to the ME wiki, each of the protections had mostly discreet weaknesses. Overload was a bit of a special case in that it was noticeably more effective against barriers than health, but it was most effective against shields.

As to Tough, I'd say partially yes. Tough is a good way to model protected enemies being more resilient than unprotected ones, but I think it's a rather poor way to model the immunity to powers that a Shield/Barrier/Armor bestows.

As to Tough, I'd say partially yes. Tough is a good way to model protected enemies being more resilient than unprotected ones, but I think it's a rather poor way to model the immunity to powers that a Shield/Barrier/Armor bestows.

That is also a GM note of So-&-So NPC had Tough(Shield); ten damage or two hits and that is gone without a save, then down to the damage save.

Personally, I'd go with the ME3 route where Armour is DR. It's so much simpler, uses an existing mechanic (that Brute there - just give him DR10 or whatever) and lets players armour matter (Krogan have "armour" in their status screen, but it has no effect in game - obviously for balance reasons, but that balance is built into MC).

Ablative HP for the other two is pretty fitting, simply give them a modifier that they count as having Archilles Heel (Electricity) for said ablative HP.